A Messaging Strategy is a repeatable process that helps content developers, subject matter experts, clients and other stakeholders identify the key, authentic messages that can be used to create content to attract identified target audiences and motivate them to engage in a pre-determined call to action.

AlGonzalezinfo's insight:

While it takes a team of people under a focused leader to establish and maintain a successful Content Strategy, a few dedicated experts must work with SMEs, clients and other stakeholders to define, document and share the key messages that must be included in all the communication channels that are covered under the content strategy.

I propose that Messaging Strategy is a repeatable process that helps content developers, subject matter experts, clients and other stakeholders identify the key, authentic messages that can be used to create content to attract identified target audiences and motivate them to engage in a pre-determined call to action.

How can we create an effective content marketing strategy and get the enormous online audience to connect with our material? Here are some words of wisdom for creating, launching and succeeding with this endeavor:

The simplicity of this infographic is a bit deceiving. The steps outlined here are all part of a good strategy. Executing them well and consistently in the midst of running the day to day operations of marketing and communications is very difficult.

Get to know which social sharing buttons works for you the most and keep only those buttons for increased social shares and web massive traffic.

AlGonzalezinfo's insight:

Good insight here. Some stats I could have guessed, others were surprising.

From the post:

So Which Social Share Buttons Should You Include?

If you’re not too sure about how many social sharing buttons or which social sharing buttons you should have which will maximize your social sharing. Then first you need to start by diving into your Google Analytics referral traffic and audience demographics data.

Excellent post for marketers and others who need to define their audiences. Here is one of the best sections:

Marketing takeaway: We all want to know our audience more deeply so we can communicate with them better. To understand your own audience better, try developing personas. And remember: Just because you don’t always hear from your audience doesn’t mean they’re not listening.

The future of digital marketing is already here, especially when it comes to presenting highly engaging, personalized, relevant advertising to consumers.

... Let’s think back to the movie Minority Report, which was filmed in 2002 but set in 2054. In a famous scene, Tom Cruise’s character walks into a Gap store. He scans his retinas, and the ad begins speaking to him: “Welcome back to the Gap Mr. Yakamoto, how are those assorted tank tops working for you?”

This movie predicted that, 50 years from now, personalized, 1:1 marketing would be the status quo. Director Steven Spielberg must have had a crystal ball – except that his timing was off. This type of personalized 1:1 marketing is much closer to reality than we’d think, thanks to the advent of tools and technologies like iBeacons (which can trigger messages sent to your phone based on your proximity to a certain location) and richly customized user experiences (easily implemented with real-time personalization tools)....

Long story short, Coursmos became the biggest education platform on Earth with more than 30,000 online courses, containing 127,000 online lessons.

AlGonzalezinfo's insight:

Very interesting service leveraging the limited time of learners around the world.

From the post:

Coursmos Student Stats

Leading participating countries include:

• United States with 51.5% of learners• Russia with 14.72% of learners• India with 2.87% of learners

These numbers reflect an incredible 33% increase since the beginning of the year. Launched in 2014, Coursmos has seen audience gains by 18% each month with course offerings increased by 22% each month.

Here is another great post by SocialMedia Examiner. As usual, they get right to the point and offer relevant examples/tools.

From the article:

Hashtags make it easier for people to find and follow discussions about brands, events and promotions. They also let brands track the performance of promotions across social media.

Hashtags can determine how easily you can target and track a campaign. You’ve probably seen many businesses use generic hashtags like #food or #chocolate. While these will get your update into a large conversation, using such broad hashtags is wasting your time.

Can you imagine how many posts (tweets or otherwise) contain #chocolate every minute? Managing the hashtag would be a nightmare. You’d spend weeks sorting through every instance of the hashtag to determine which mentions apply to you.

It’s worth the effort (and your sanity) to come up with a unique hashtag that fits with your particular campaign.

7 design-related best practices for creating landing pages that convert.

AlGonzalezinfo's insight:

This is an extremely helpful post on why/ how to plan and execute landing pages.

While all the 7 tips are relevant, I want to emphasize the need to avoid visual clutter, tip #4:

...And while graphics are certainly attractive, they can also increase the load time of your website. In fact, according to the Aberdeen Group, a one-second delay in page-load time results in 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and a 7% loss in conversions. Yikes! Keep things simple, and make sure the images you use on your landing pages support -- not distract -- the pathway to conversion.

Nothing hidden about these "tips & tricks" - just standard every day library functions. This is not new, most these functions have been used since Win95, the days before we see the net as we do now. Nonetheless, whatever it takes for people to finally catch up and educate themselves about easier searching techniques!

In the world of coordinated creation of social media stories, there’s typically two kinds of success, or ROI, on social campaigns – Cost Mitigation, and Sales Increase. And I believe there is a Return on Relationship (ROR) fostered by all brand relevant content and communication… simply put the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship. ROI is simple $’s and cents, ROR is the value (both perceived and real) that will accrue over time through loyalty, recommendations and sharing...

Seize the high ground. Establish your brand on positive attributes like “making meaning,” “doing good,” “changing the world,” and “making people happy”--not doing in your competition.

Create one message. It's hard enough to create and communicate one branding message; however, many companies try to establish more than one because they are afraid of being niched and want the “entire” market. “Our computer is for Fortune 500 companies. And, oh yes, it's also for consumers to use a home.” Face it, Volvo can't equal safety and sexiness, and Toyota can't equal economical and luxuriousness.

Strive for humanness. Great brands achieve a high level of humaness. They speak to you as an individual, not as part of a market. It's “my iPod.” “My Macintosh.” “My Harley Davidson.” “My bottle of Coke.”

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.